Copying filename to X clipboard

["bulia byak" <bulia dr com>]

Some time ago I asked if it's possible to copy the filename under
cursor in mc to the X clipboard so it can be pasted into other
programs. Now I have implemented this using the xclip utility (see
http://people.debian.org/~kims/xclip/). I created a shell script
that takes a string as argument and puts it into both primary
selection and the clipboard buffer:

#!/bin/sh
echo -n $1 | xclip -i -selection clipboard
echo -n $1 | xclip -i -selection primary

Then, in src/main.c, I added a function that calls system() with a
command line concatenated from the name of the shell script and the
current file name, including path (code borrowed from
copy_current_pathname and copy_prog_name, but without stuffing it
into the command prompt). Then I added a new entry to default_map to
bind this function to a key, and that was all.

One caveat: the current version of xclip does not work with KDE
apps, so only non-KDE apps can paste the clipboard. The author of
xclip was planning to fix this in the next version.

I do not publish the actual patch because it's rather messy
(although it works) and because this just a temporary solution. The
correct solution is (as I wrote before) to allow the user to define
the keymaps via a config file, without recompilation. The syntax for
this config file should allow binding keys not only to mc's own
functions, but also to arbitrary shell commands (to be run through
system()). As in the bindings file, these commands must be able to
grok substitutions such as %f or %p referring to the currently
selected file (or tagged files). If anyone would program such a
configuration system for keybindings, this would be really great for
users who have better things to do than recompile mc on every
keybinding change :) (Unfortunately I'm not a programmer - I can 
only do quick hacks for what I need, not write production code.)

Meanwhile, I'm planning to use the above approach to implement 
copying the selected fragment from the mc built-in editor to 
the clipboard. 

-- 
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